While that’s true, there’s another aspect that’s more lucrative: Number of direct reports and actual power. Even for technical/research position, you’ll get hundreds of people reporting below you if the compensation is really $1M (500k even honestly). The career ceiling which is common in the west doesn’t really exist. Many talented people I know choose to leave for that reason, because their position is much much higher(e.g one former senior engineer in google becomes “director of Recommendation group” with hundreds direct report in one of BAT)
Well there’s a director in most research institute right? In FAIR/MSR they also have science managers which are top researchers themselves. At some point it’s more lucrative to have fellow researchers and supporting engineers and access to more resources. While it might not be that appealing to some people, it indeed attracted many others.
People always talk about how much they hate corporate ladders, but honestly most will happily accept a new position with a shinny title
